J.B. Edney and Son Blacksmiths, 1881. Photo: Museum of the Riverina (Sherry Morris Collection).
This striking photo takes us back to a vital 19th-century trade and the forge of leading Wagga citizen James Brown Edney.
The pic captures a fabulously candid moment as the son of J.B. Edney, James Welsh Edney (centre) stands with two co-workers, outside the family’s ‘General Blacksmiths and Shoeing Forge’ on Gurwood Street.
The men were clearly called away from the forge to pose, dressed in their work clothes and farriers aprons with sleeves rolled up and tools in hand.
The man on the left holds a pair of blacksmith tongs in his left hand as evidenced by the shadow across his leg, while James grips a heavy hammer in his blackened right fist.
The tall man with bushy whiskers has a kerchief tied around his head while the boy, perhaps an apprentice or younger sibling, has removed his battered felt hat.
In the centre, James wears his waistcoat and a style of hat common with tradesmen in the 19th century called a ‘wheel cap’ or a ‘mechanics cap’. It is not dissimilar to the peaked caps worn by police and military today.
The history of the forge begins with the arrival of Scottish migrant J.B. Edney.
Born in Edinburgh in 1836, J.B. arrived in Sydney in 1859 with his mother, his wife Elizabeth, and their two children – one of whom was born on the voyage!
His father, John Robertson Edney had been a convict and moved to the fledgling town of Wagga Wagga several years earlier after obtaining his ‘ticket of leave’.
A tough character with a clear sense of adventure, J.B. almost immediately set out on foot for the Riverina.
The family walked the entire 310 miles in 23 days.
After carrying his young son on his shoulders the entire way, J.B. later declared “I never felt like this before now after those few days resting I feel all my bones quite sore“.
He and his father initially operated a sawpit and built a number of local wooden structures.
Photographic postcard of James Brown and Elizabeth M Edney. Photo: CSU Regional Archives (Riverina and Murray Private Records Collection).
With a background in metalwork, J.B. soon set himself up in a building on Gurwood Street that was previously owned by the notorious ‘Tichborne Claimant’ Arthur Orton.
He established the forge and the city’s first foundry, casting wheels and farming tools from scrap metal, and worked as a gunsmith.
J.B. was an active member of the community and perhaps surprisingly for a blacksmith, he played the clarinet in the Wagga Wagga Town Band.
He also served as a council alderman from 1895-98.
He passed away at the ripe old age of 90 with the Daily Express proclaiming that “widespread regret will be expressed at the death of Mr James Brown Edney”.
He was predeceased by his wife and five children, but survived by four sons and four daughters and dozens of grandchildren and great-grandchildren.
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